Chapter (65) 66: Writings [1] A song of ascents. Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth, let Israel now say— (Psalm 129:1) See, O LORD, the distress I am in! My heart is in anguish, [*Lit. “My heart has turned over within me”; cf. Exod. 14.5; Hos. 11.8.I know how wrong I was ] To disobey.
Outside the sword deals death; Indoors, the plague. (Lamentations 1:20) The Knesset of Israel said: "Master of the Universe, you saw fit for us to experience suffering, as it is written 'With him who wrote with me, I am in distress' (Psalm 91:15). Behold, we are in distress, and it is good for You. Until now, Israel would say of themselves that no one had risen up against them like Balaam the wicked.
Our rabbis said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Pazi that when Balak sent Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam said to him, 'What are you doing? Do you want to anger the Lord who is with them? They are like two people who are inseparable. If one of them is hit, it is as if both are hit.
The Lord is like this with Israel. If I curse them, it is as if I am touching Him.' As it says, How can I damn whom God [God Heb El, as often in these poems.] has not damned, How doom when יהוה has not doomed? (Numbers 23:8). Similarly, Jeremiah says, 'For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man' (Jeremiah 13:11).
When will this happen? When what Moses said is fulfilled: 'You shall love the Lord your God and listen to His voice, and you shall cling to Him' (Deuteronomy 30:20). Therefore, David said: "Though I walk through [*Others “the valley of the shadow of death.”] a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)